Looking back, 2022 has been one of the most productive years for NASA in decades. The three missions taking place in 2022 are notable not only for their success but also for their potential to improve the future.
The James Webb Space Telescope will actually launch in late December 2021 on an ESA Ariane 6 rocket. About a month later, the first test was performed when the telescope reached the Earth-Sun point L2. The space telescope deployed its mirrors and giant sunshield, a process that made ground controllers sweat. If something went wrong, a space mission like saving the Hubble Space Telescope would be impossible.
Fortunately, there were no major issues with the deployment and alignment of the mirror and sunscreen. The James Webb Space Telescope will begin sending back the first full-color images of the universe in July 2022. The results are spectacular. The images include nebulae, galaxies, and even signs of water and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant star. The $10 billion bet paid off.
By the end of 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope has returned images of Neptune’s rings, near and distant star formation, and the first galaxies at the dawn of the Big Bang. Space telescopes promise to expand human knowledge of the universe for many years to come. It is currently not possible to assess what to gain from this knowledge.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) launches on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in November 2021. Ten months later, DART crashed into Dimorphos, an asteroid orbiting a larger asteroid called Didymos. DART’s mission is to determine whether NASA can alter the path of an asteroid colliding with Earth.
DART has been more successful than expected. NASA found that DART had shifted Dimorphos’s orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes, by two minutes. The impact also produced a tail of ejected debris weighing 2.2 million to 22 million pounds. NASA has obtained key data on how large the impact of changing the path of an asteroid must be.
DART’s success could very well save humanity. Most people know that the age of dinosaurs ended when an asteroid hit near the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago. A similar impact could end human life. Now, NASA has demonstrated a technique that could permanently delay the end of the world. As a bonus, DART’s success inspired the development of the NEO Surveyor, a space telescope dedicated to locating and characterizing near-Earth objects, some of which could threaten Earth.
On the morning of November 16, 2022, the first mission of the Artemis 1 spacecraft will send astronauts into deep space for the first time in 50 years. Over budget and behind schedule, NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System launched the Orion capsule into a distant retrograde orbit around the moon during a 26-day mission.
Orion contains mannequins fitted with sensors designed to measure the radiation environment real astronauts would experience during similar deep-space voyages. The mission tested nearly every system needed to work on a manned expedition. With a few exceptions, Artemis 1 was a complete success. The Orion crashed in the Pacific Ocean near Baja California.
In addition to the data needed for a manned return mission to the Moon, Artemis 1 beamed back a series of lunar images from the farthest part of its orbit. The pictures are heartrendingly beautiful, reminiscent of the famous Earthrise images taken by the Apollo 8 crew. Artemis 1 photos offer some much-needed inspiration as a tumultuous year draws to a close.
The future Artemis I conjures is one in which humanity is no longer confined to one planet. Humanity will return to the moon and then travel to Mars and beyond to claim knowledge, wealth and glory from the skies.
Americans seem to have a love-hate relationship with NASA. The glory days of the space agency seem long gone, making it a topic of nostalgia for baby boomers. But the James Webb Space Telescope, DART, and Artemis 1 missions proved that the institutions that put humans on the moon and built the International Space Station are still capable.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of the space exploration study “Why is it so hard to return to the Moon?” As well as “The Moon, Mars, and Beyond” and “Why Should America Go Back to the Moon?” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.
